15 Examples Of Anti-Gay Discrimination Conservatives Want To Preserve

On Monday, Family Research Council Action sent a volatile email encouraging opposition to the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which would create nationwide protections for LGBT workers. It echoed many of the claims on the group’s “Fight ENDA” page, including an outright claim that homosexual attraction isn’t biological, so the gay community doesn’t deserve civil rights. Tony Perkins’s daily email from FRC proceeded to once again bemoan last week’s Supreme Court rulings in favor of marriage equality, but similarly highlighted 15 examples of discrimination against gay people the group hopes to protect.

Here’s a closer look at the kinds of discrimination FRC and other conservatives believe embodies “religious liberty:”

Sweet Cakes by Melissa (2013): Sweet Cakes is an Oregon bakery that refused a wedding cake to a same-sex couple. Discrimination based on sexual orientation is illegal under Oregon law.

Just Cookies (2010): Just Cookies were not so just when they refused an order of rainbow cookies for an LGBT student group at Indiana University Purdue University-Indianapolis. Despite claims that they couldn’t fulfill the order, the owner admitted he didn’t think it was best for his “two young, impressionable daughters,” and they eventually settled a complaint with the city of Indianapolis for violating its anti-discrimination ordinance.

Masterpiece Cakes (2012): Masterpiece Cakes in Lakewood, Colorado refused wedding cakes to multiple same-sex couples, though follow-up test calls revealed it would accommodate a cake for a dog wedding. The state attorney general has filed a complaint against the shop for violating the state’s nondiscrimination laws.

Victoria’s Cake Cottage (2011): Baker Victoria Childress of Des Moines, Iowa told a same-sex couple she couldn’t provide them with a wedding cake because of her “convictions for their lifestyle.” It doesn’t seem any legal action was ever taken, but discrimination based on sexual orientation is a violation of Iowa law.

Fleur Cakes (2013): Fleur Cakes is the second Oregon bakery to refuse service to a same-sex couple this year in violation of the law. The owner of Fleur Cakes, like those of Sweet Cakes, would gladly provide cakes for all kinds of other sins, just not same-sex marriages.

Elane Photography (2006): The infamous case of Elane Photography is a staple conservative argument for “religious liberty.” A same-sex couple sued when photographer Elane Hugenin refused to document their commitment ceremony because of her Christian beliefs. She has fought the complaint with support from the Alliance Defending Freedom, but has so far lost at multiple levels of New Mexico court for violating the state’s nondiscrimination law.

Aloha Bed and Breakfast (2011): The Aloha Bed and Breakfast in Hawai’i refused to rent a room to a lesbian couple because the owner believed same-sex relationships “defile the land.” The couple sued, and this April a state judge ruled against the B&B for violating the state’s LGBT nondiscrimination protections.

Liberty Ridge Farm (2012): Last September, the New York-based Liberty Ridge Farm refused to let a lesbian couple rent the venue for their wedding because it goes against their religious views. The couple filed a complaint, and conservatives were quick to defend the venue as some small operation — a literal family “farm” — but blogger Jeremy Hooper has pointed out that the business sells wedding packages for several thousand dollars and even runs a wedding blog to tout its offerings.

All Occasion Party Place (2013): The All Occasion Party Place near Fort Worth, Texas refused to rent its venue to a gay couple for a wedding reception “because of God.” Because it’s located outside the city limits, it is not covered by the city’s nondiscrimination protections, and Texas state laws do not protect sexual orientation.

Wildflower Inn (2011): Due to “personal feelings,” the Wildflower Inn in Vermont refused to let a lesbian couple hold their wedding reception there. The couple filed a complaint, which they won last August when the Inn settled, admitting they violated the state’s nondiscrimination laws. Its owners paid a $10,000 civil penalty and established a $20,000 charitable for the couple, which they intend to use to support The Trevor Project.

Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association (2007): The Ocean Grove pavilion in New Jersey is a case conservatives cite quite regularly along with Elane Photography, but the story they tell doesn’t hold up. The church group refused to let a same-sex couple hold a civil union at its boardwalk pavilion, and when the couple filed a complaint, a judge ruled in their favor and the pavilion ultimately lost its tax exemption. The key detail conservatives leave out is that its tax exemption was not based on its religious affiliation, but on a Green Acres real-estate tax exemption for conservation and recreation purposes. The New Jersey Civil Rights Division upheld the judge’s decision in the case, and since losing, the pavilion has re-obtained tax-exempt status through the group’s religious identity.

Hands On Originals (2012): Hands On Originals, a printing company in Lexington, Kentucky, refused to produce t-shirts for the city’s Pride festival because “we’re a Christian organization.” The Gay and Lesbian Services Organization filed a complaint, and the Lexington Human Rights Commission ultimately ruled against the company for violating the city’s sexual orientation nondiscrimination ordinance.

Dr. Angela McCaskill (2012): Last year, Gallaudet University suspended its chief diversity officer for helping challenge Maryland’s marriage equality law at the ballot. She refused to apologize, seeming to compromise her responsibility to ensure that LGBT employees and students at the university are not subject to discrimination. She suggested she might seek compensation for the suspension, but she has since been reinstated.

Crystal Dixon (2008): Crystal Dixon published an editorial letter in the Toledo Free Press objecting to the idea that “those choosing the homosexual lifestyle are ‘civil rights victims'” because they “violate God’s divine order,” identifying herself in the letter as Associate Vice President for Human Resources at the University of Toledo. The university proceeded to terminate her employment because her views directly contradicted her responsibility to uphold its nondiscrimination statement, which includes sexual orientation. She sued, and last December the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the university had legitimate grounds to fire her. She has appealed to the Supreme Court.

There are several common themes in the 15 examples FRC sites. First, in every case where legal action has been taken, the discriminating entity has lost, and in the cases that are ongoing, the state has sided with the same-sex couples who filed complaints. Secondly, many of these cases have taken place in states that don’t even have marriage equality, proving that the issue is not even related to marriage laws, but to nondiscrimination provisions. Lastly, as the last two examples demonstrate, conservatives believe anti-gay discrimination for discrimination’s sake is perfectly valid, even when it’s an individual’s job specifically not to. Most of these examples address public accommodations, and none of them make a compelling case against either marriage equality nor ENDA’s employment protections.

Conservatives may champion “religious liberty” as their argument against LGBT equality moving forward, but it’s an argument they’re already losing across the country.